Post by Arindam BanerjeePost by Arindam BanerjeePost by Jerry FriedmanPost by Arindam BanerjeePost by Harrison HillSince people here have brought up Rudyard Kipling...
"Though I?ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin? Gawd that made you,
You?re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"
Rikki-tikki-tavie's greatest moments please. The little
mongoose who is the only creature (including us), who can
confidently take on Kaa and other big snakes.
I read Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" with the greatest pleasure. His insight into the true Indian character is most genuine and positive. Sadly, just as the British character has changed into some American, the Indian character has changed, similarly. As part of this change, jungles have been cut down to make more money. So that India Kipling wrote about is lost. Still, we do have his wonderful writing left, and so, even if he is abused today, it shows how
relevant he was in his time.
Post by Arindam BanerjeePost by Jerry FriedmanPost by Arindam BanerjeeAs for Gunga Din, I am interested in him. He was a high caste Hindu loyally serving the British.
How do you know he was high-caste?
He had to be in order to serve the British.
The British in India employed many lower castes to do the most menial
tasks.
Gunga Din was one of them, a water carrier (Bhishti). As the poem
says, his job was carrying drinking water to troops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhishti
"The Bhishti (Hindustani: are a Muslim tribe or biradari found in
North India, Pakistan and the Terai region of Nepal. They are also known
as (Shaikh Abbasi) Dhund Abbasi and Saqqa, and use Sheikh Abbasi, or
Dhund-Abbasi, as a surname. In Maharashtra, the tribe is often referred
to as Pakhali The Sheikh Abbasi belong to Arab Tribe (Banu Abbas). The
title character of Rudyard Kipling's poem "Gunga Din" is a Bhisti."
Gunga Din is about the last name any self-respecting Muslim would take in the 19th century.
Gunga is the Goddess Ganga, the mother of Bhishma of the Mahabharata, brought down to Earth as a result of much prayer from the suffering Indian population, afflicted by the heat.
No Muslim has the name Ganga. It is pagan and idolatrous, and thus would be sacrilegious, especially in those times.
Din means day in Hindi, but Deen means poor and probably that is what Kipling had in mind. Just that Din sounds better on the drums than Deen. Deen is often used in Hindu naming, one of the most famous being Deen Dayal Upadhyay. Deen Dayal means being kind to the poor.
Gunga Din was a Hindu, 100%. After 1857 the Muslims in the British Army declined in numbers, for obvious reasons. Hindus got their chance, to succeed, as the Muslims had been responsible for the massacres of innocent men and women in Kanpur. Many Muslims were dispossessed. It took decades for them to make a comeback, till Sir Syed Ahmed Khan went to London and convinced the English that they were "brothers of the Book".
Ganga Din was most likely a Brahmin, for Brahmins were very poor so, Ganga Deen meaning Ganga the Poor was quite all right as a name for the poor Brahmin.
Gunga Din was a bhishti or water-carrier in function, but in practice no professional bhishti goes to the field of battle. He was a lowly functionary doing the job of a bhishti. An orderly, one of most low paid employees. Their jobs were to fetch and carry in general, but in GD's case his job was to supply water to the troops.
Not all the troops were British, and the non-British soldiers were high caste Hindus, of the martial type. They would not accept water from a low caste or a Muslim, but they would accept water from a Brahmin.
Kipling shows a very high regard for Brahmins, as evidenced in his story "The Miracle of Puran Bhagat". And why not, for the Brahmins supported the British Raj in the most ardent way, along with other high castes.
Cheers,
Arindam Banerjee
Post by Arindam Banerjee"Like other Muslim artisan castes, the Bhishti have set up an India-
wide caste association, the All-India Jamiat ul Abbas, which acts both
as a welfare association, as well as organization involved with lobbying
on behalf of the Bhishti in India. The community has been granted Other
Backward Class status"
Janet.
Post by Arindam BanerjeePost by Jerry FriedmanPost by Arindam BanerjeeWas he a traitor, or a person who knew that by serving a people with superior organisation and technology as well as possible, benefits would come to his own people in due course? I would like to believe the former, but I think that would go against the grain of most Indians.
I thought the former view was more popular in India, but I could very
easily be wrong.
It is the other way around. In the times of the Raj the high castes were favoured, for their superior work culture,
and Gunga Din was their representative.
Post by Arindam BanerjeeIt seems very "white" of Kipling to say that Gunga Din was the better
man
But then, Kipling was a poet, what was is poetry without that peculiar
kernel of truth? The British were no doubt superior, but Gunga Din was
the real hero. His servitude would pave the way for better days to come
for his unfortunate brethren. When one is inferior, one has to work for
those who are superior, and thus learn their better ways.
Post by Arindam BanerjeeIn these days of democracy, the lower castes rule India with their large numbers. They blame the higher castes for all the ills of India, so as a servant of the whites, Gunga Din is considered by them to be a traitor.
Descendants of the higher castes that supported the Raj are happy to emigrate.
Cheers,
Arindam Banerjee